1892, from crunch + -y (2). Student slang sense of "annoyingly intense about health or environmental issues" is by 1990, short for crunchy granola (considered as natural and wholesome); not entirely pejorative at first. Related: Crunchiness.

crunchy

adjective

Having a healthy diet and way of living; natural; earthy: She's a crunchy granola girl/ drew directly on their college days at Connecticut's slightly crunchy (as in granola) Wesleyan University(1980s+ Students)

noun

Aperson who is disagreeably intent on environmental matters, personal bodily simplicity, walking in the forest, etc •The term altered to pejorative as the student ethos altered and ''political correctness'' became repellent: crunchy granola: a person who is emotionally or temperamentally still living in the 1960s/ Hippie parents, you know. Rill crunchy(1990s+ Students)

[fr the 1876 trademark of a ''cooked, granulated wheat''; crunchy, candylike modern versions of the cereal were much prized by some elements of the 1960s counterculture]

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.Cite This Source